


'cause i've done some things i can't speak of

by dryadfiona



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Other, Past Relationship(s), also au in which the clusters a bust lmao, au where jasper and peridots ship goes back to homeworld instead of confronting the gems, treats rose diamond theory as canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 20:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5428952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yellow Diamond hears about Rose Quartz's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'cause i've done some things i can't speak of

The words are ringing in her ears, Yellow Diamond notes. Breathing may be unnecessary for Gems, but it's unusual for her to stop entirely. She is staring, unseeing, into space. The other Gem is still talking. Forcing herself to come back to reality, she glares back at her subordinates.

"--a hybrid, half-human, but with the gem."

"...a human has Rose's gem?" This is not real. This cannot be real, this cannot be what happened to her. 12,000 years with no word, nothing but hope and worry and an overwhelming sense of loss.

"Yes, ma'am." Jasper looks terrified, and she takes a savage pleasure in it, indulging in a brief fantasy in which she crushes her gem, imagines the shriek of horror from Peridot, shaking seemingly uncontrollably with fear, the muffled gasp of surprise from Lapis Lazuli. The captive Gem, forced to talk about her time on Earth, looks with such clear loathing at those around her that Yellow Diamond is surprised by it. Did all Gems keep their emotions this close to the surface? She knew Rose--

No. Focus.

"Get out," she manages, barely keeping her voice at its standard monotone. "This report is most helpful." Jasper is visibly relieved. Peridot stops shaking. Lapis looks as if she wants to say something but won't give her captors the satisfaction. That's fine. Yellow Diamond isn't sure she wants to hear anything else they have to say.

She raises an eyebrow. They hurry to leave. Only when they have does she allow herself a response. She throws a gem-powered scanner against the wall, and it explodes into shimmering red dust. _Rose would have resented me for that,_ she thinks, choking back sobs.  _Rose isn't around to care_ _,_ a nasty whisper in the back of her mind reminds her.

White Diamond can probably see this, but she doesn't  _care,_ knows she won't judge her, that she knows what Rose was to her--

And memories come flooding back, of soft words and touches and smiles, the way she danced, laughed, loved, and she loved Rose, she really did, and when she left, Yellow Diamond thought that was the worst of it, but if that was a punch to the gut, this is a knife wound.

She is aching. Curled up into a corner like some failed attempt at fusion, hands over her face, breathing light and quick and wholly unnecessary. She is the leader of the most powerful empire in the universe. She is untouchable, immortal, invulnerable. She is entirely without flaw.

There is nothing she can do.

It takes her longer than she would care to admit to compose herself. Wiping the tears from her face, fixing at least some of the mess she made before calling in a Pearl to clean up the dust. A Rhodolite scanner, she thinks. She didn't check. She didn't care.

She moves to her seat, ignoring the Pearl entirely. The cluster experiments had failed, but that hardly mattered. The Crystal Gems, that little honor guard, had taken Rose Diamond from her. The hybrid had.  _Earth_ had.

She would see it burn.


End file.
